First, a little history. Back between 214 to 212 B.C., the Romans took siege of the city of Syracuse, located on what is known today as the island of Sicily. Greek and Roman historians have written that Archimedes -- the Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer -- attempted to thwart the invasion by designing a large mirror that was able to concentrate sunlight onto the Roman ships in the harbor and burn them. (I'm reminded of the Vdara Hotel in Vegas, which is a curved, glassy structure that to the architects' chagrin, no doubt, focuses sunlight onto parts of the hotel's pool deck, rending it too hot for use.)

Attempts to prove whether this was possible or not have been tried over and over again by a variety of people, including students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who repeated their test with Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters.

But Savage and Hyneman must not have been satisfied with their results (busted) from that episode because it looks like they're conducting the test again and this time with President Obama. The President announced his cameo today at the White House Science Fair. He said, “I'm pleased to welcome Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, known as the Mybusters. I can announce today that I taped a special guest appearance for their show, although I didn't get blow anything up… I was a little frustrated about that.”

More deets from Discovery's press release:

Adam and Jamie were present in November 2009 for the President's 'Educate to Innovate' event, which kicked off the Administration's campaign for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) awareness. The December 8 Mythbusters episode is part of a sweeping, multi-platform initiative launched by Discovery Communications called “Be the Future,” which also includes such commitments as Head Rush, a commercial-free science block for kids that launched in August on Science Channel, and several initiatives of Discovery Education, which will make this special episode of Mythbusters available to students and educators across the country through Discovery Education's curriculum-based digital resources.